Strategic assessments central to new nuclear power

With the UK Government’s announcement in the Nuclear White Paper to allow private companies to invest in new nuclear power stations, environmental issues will be significant in confirming their eventual location.
 
In the lead up to and following the announcement, Hyder has been providing high level advice on the environmental framework that will form part of the siting criteria. We were commissioned by the Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) to provide advice on and undertake the initial stages of a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for a Strategic Siting Assessment (SSA) for new nuclear power stations in the UK. Since the announcement, we have been commissioned to continue defining the environmental parameters.
 
The pre-announcement commission involved advising the Government on how best to integrate an SEA into the SSA process and liaison with statutory bodies to prepare an initial environmental report on the siting criteria proposed. Further to this, we have advised on approaches to meeting BERR’s obligations under the Habitats Directive for a potential Appropriate Assessment. Throughout, a very close working relationship has been developed with BERR, their legal advisors, the SSA team, other Government Departments and the statutory bodies.
 
This is an unprecedented study which paves the way for sustainability assessments for other potential National Policy Statements.